Stories from Wednesday, May 21, 2008

100 YEARS AGO (1908) At 3:40 this afternoon one of the most remarkable freight trains ever operated through this city made its appearance at the Frisco yards. It came tearing down the incline from the south--ensconsed in smoke and dust, paused long enough to change crews, which occupied but three minutes (during which a local photographer photographed the train) and it whirled northward towards Kansas City. ...

The United States is nearing the start of a huge shift in the age of its citizens. It's being referred to as the "silver tsunami." This year the first of the baby boomers are turning 62. With 78 million baby boomers (people born between l946 and l964) in our country, the number of elderly people in the United States will be increasing for some time...

The Senior Swingers Monday night dance at Buck Run Community Center was a good one with the average attendance. For once the weather did cooperate with us and there wasn't much going on at the center in the other gym. Sometimes it gets rather busy in the halls and the parking is something else...

Brittney Doherty, Keisha Phillips, Tiffinie Bradley and Megan Anglin of Fort Scott High School and Kaitlin Spainhoward of Uniontown High School have been chosen by Unit Number 25 of Fort Scott to attend the 66 annual session of Sunflower Girls State on the University of Kansas Lawerence campus. Sunflower Girls State is sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary, June first through the sixth...

The Bourbon County Courthouse and Transfer Station will be closed Monday, May 26, 2008, in observance of the Memorial Day Holiday. Both will re-open for regular business on Tuesday, May 27. Bourbon County wishes everyone a safe Memorial Day weekend!...

The City of Fort Scott will be closed on Monday, May 26, 2008, in observance of the Memorial Day Holiday. The offices will reopen on Tuesday, May 27, 2008. -- Submitted by Diane Clay, City Clerk

All former students, teachers, and friends are invited to the RIchards-Stotesbury alumni banquet, Saturday, May 24, at the Buck Run Community Center. Doors open at 3 p.m. for visiting and viewing pictures and memorabilia. Catered dinner will be at 7 p.m...

Wilda Eileen Scott, age 82, long time resident of Littlerock and Olympia, died peacefully at home on Friday, May 16, 2008. She was born January 3, 1926, in Fort Scott, Kan., to Martin and Gladys Johnston. She married Pat H. Scott on July 17, 1943. They moved to Olympia in 1949...

Karen Elaine Browning, age 48, a resident of San Antonio, Texas, died December 4, 2007, in San Antonio. She was born April 19, 1959, in Lakeview, Ore., the daughter of Basil and Gladys (Smith) Rexroad. She grew up in Colorado before moving to Texas. She loved working on cars. She will be missed by her family and friends...

Ida P. Heathman, 70, Nevada, Mo., passed away on Monday, May 19, 2008, at Nevada Regional Medical Center following a sudden illness. She was born April 9, 1938, in Fort Scott, Kan., to George Sylvester Hogan and F. Pauline Lowry. She married Bert Allen Heathman on September 24, 1955, in the Rinchart Christian Church. He preceded her in death on April 21, 1988...

TOURTILLOTT -- Jacob Joseph Tourtillott, a boy, and Alexis Grace Tourtillott, a girl, were born at Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott on Monday, May 19, 2008, to parents Adam and Amy Tourtillott, Fort Scott. Jacob Joseph was born at 7:30 a.m., and Alexis Grace followed at 7:32 a.m. Jacob weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces, and Alexis weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces at birth...

Three projects from Southeast Kansas that placed at the state competition for National History Day this year are all from Fort Scott. The students who gave the presentations will present their projects Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Round Room at Fort Scott Community College followed by a question and answer session with the audience. ...

The restoration of the Cato School is one of 22 projects statewide to receive a financial boost from the Kansas Historical Society. The Cato Historical Preservation Association, a group that has worked the last several years to restore the historic one-room schoolhouse in Cato, a small town in northern Crawford County near Arcadia, recently received a $15,360 Heritage Trust Fund grant to repair and replace windows in the old school, which was built in 1869, CHPA board member Barbara Scott said...

On May 14, students at Fort Scott Middle School, with eyes glued to the sky, watched and waited. Local middle school students participated in a Kick Off for Summer Safety Fair. At the event, a team of emergency workers from various departments educated the students about different steps they can take in order to stay safe. To kick off the event, students were given the opportunity to watch a St. John's Hospital MedFlight land in the middle school parking lot...

UNIONTOWN -- Thirty-six students obtained their high school diplomas Tuesday in front of their family and friends that packed the West Bourbon Elementary Gymnasium. Usually, there is a valedictorian and a salutatorian. But the class of 2008 had three salutatorians, Silas Bloesser, Karlee Daylong and Luke Spainhoward, and a valedictorian, Kelsey Welch. All four gave a brief address to their classmates and crowd...